ICSCCs are the concentration of somatic cells present in milk from all quarters of each cow and reported as cells/mL.

Regular individual cow SCC enables you to monitor udder health of each cow over a lactation. They allow you to assess the contribution of an individual cow to the bulk milk SCC, and provide you with options when deciding your dry cow treatment strategy and culling list.

Guideline 12 provides practical information on:

• Methods for diverting high SCC milk from the vat
• Milking chronically infected animals last to avoid contaminating other cows
• Using herd test data to monitor percentage of cows and heifers with increased cell counts after each herd test.

Technote 12 provides technical information for farmers and advisers on:

• Somatic cell response to different types of mastitis
• Factors affecting somatic cell count
• Relating ICSCC to likelihood of infection at dry off
• Options for dealing with high SCC cows
• Assessing spread of infection in herd from changes in ICSCC.